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This report contains a note written following a discussicn of the real p:_ecisxon problem in Ironman at the Twente, Hollard meeting of WG2.4earlier this year. It also contairis a verbatim, un unexpurgated version of a written dialog on exception handling in green which o~-.cured at this conference during one of the sessions.

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THIS DOCUMENT IS AN APPROXIMATE REPRESENTATION OF THE ORIGINAL.

A NOTE AND A DIALOG ON ASPECTS* OF THE DOD COMMON
LANGUAGE (IRONMAN)

BY ROBERT B. K. DEWAR

October 1978 Report No. 005 This report contains a note written following a discussicn of the
real p:_ecisxon problem in Ironman at the Twente, Hollard meeting of WG2.4earlier this year. It
also contairis a verbatim, un unexpurgated version of a written dialog on exception handling in
green which o~-.cured at this conference during one of the sessions. *"This work was supported
in part by NSF Grant Tao. MCS76-00115 , from The National Sciences Foundation. Any
opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are these
of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The National Science Foundation."

2 PART I IRON MAN REALS AND THE INFAMOUS "SQU.URE ROOT" PROBLEM

R. DEWAR If several variables are declared: REAL (8 ) REAL (12 ) REAL (15 ) Then the
question arises of how many types are present; there are three possible answers: (1) 3 - Each
separate precision is a separate type, regardless of implementation. (ii) 1 - All precisions are
one type (the precision is an attribute) (Ironman) . (iii) 2 (or maybe 1 or 3!) - my machine was
single precision up to 9, double precision up to 18. We can also ask how many square root
routines are required (by overloading) and get three answers. This question makes it
immediately clear that answer (iii)(depends on machine) is untenable since it means that the
number of square root routines depends on the hardware, which, from a portability point of view
at least, is absurd. ( footnote at end). If we take approach (i) then we surely discourage the
accurate specification of precision because we will need to write many square root routines with
identical bodies (this we know is a naive view, since the algorithm may depend on the precision,
but let it pass for now - if it really bothers, replace sqrt by square in the preceeding discussion).
3

Thus we see how Ironman arrived at answer (ii). We also have the analog in ALGOL-60 and
ALGOL-68 arrays where all arrays a (of the same number of dimensions) are one type and one
need not write a separate sum procedure for each array length. What about implementation of (ii)? Well let us follow the array analog further:

efficient code, no less efficient code, dope vector, no check dope vector required The "dope
vector" for a real is simply an extra tag containing its precision. Normally they ca.^.^. be omitted
but not in the awkward cases. The type system is intact, but the thought of the dynamic checks
Involved is somewhat unpleasant. It is possible to use the usual incantation: "Oh optimizer,
examine the program, yea even unto the inter-procedural level, and divine, if possible, all tho...